Little Kanawha River

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Little Kanawha River
Image:Little Kanawha River Parkersburg West Virginia.jpg The Little Kanawha River just upstream of its mouth in Parkersburg
Origin	Upshur County, West Virginia
Mouth	Ohio River, Parkersburg, West Virginia
Basin countries	United States
Length	169 mi (269 km)
Basin area	2,320 mi² (6,009 km²)

The Little Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, 169 mi (269 km) long,<ref name=WVenc>Gilchrist-Stalnaker, Joy Gregoire. 2006. "Little Kanawha River." The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Ken Sullivan, editor. Charleston, WV: West Virginia Humanities Council. ISBN 0-9778498-0-5.</ref> in western West Virginia in the United States. Via the Ohio, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 2,320 mi² (6,009 km²)<ref>Willis, Todd C. (ed.) 1987. "Length of rivers and watershed areas in West Virginia." West Virginia Blue Book. Vol. 71.</ref> on the unglaciated portion of the Allegheny Plateau. It served as an important commercial water route in the early history of West Virginia, particularly in the logging and petroleum industries.<ref name=WVenc/><ref>"Little Kanawha once was vital transportation link," Parkersburg News & Sentinel website</ref>

1 Course
2 Tributaries
3 Variant names
4 See also
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Course

The Little Kanawha rises in southern Upshur County, approximately 20 mi (32 km) south of Buckhannon. It follows a meandering course generally west-northwestwardly, through Lewis, Braxton, Gilmer, Calhoun, Wirt and Wood Counties, past the towns of Burnsville, Sand Fork, Glenville, Grantsville, Palestine and Elizabeth, to its mouth at the Ohio River in Parkersburg.<ref name=DeLorme>DeLorme (1997). West Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer. Yarmouth, Maine: DeLorme. ISBN 0-89933-246-3.</ref>

About 3 mi (5 km) upstream of Burnsville<ref>Burnsville Lake website, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers</ref>, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam causes the river to form Burnsville Lake, which was completed in 1976 at a cost of $56.2 million.<ref>Hohmann, George. "Lock offered combination for growth." Charleston Daily Mail. 15 June 1999.</ref>

[edit] Tributaries

The Little Kanawha's largest tributary<ref name=WVenc/> is the Hughes River, which flows into it near the Wirt County community of Newark,<ref name=DeLorme/> approximately 12 mi (19 km) southeast of Parkersburg.<ref>Columbia Gazetteer of North America entry for Little Kanawha River</ref> Other tributaries include the headwaters stream Right Fork Little Kanawha River,<ref>Geographic Names Inormation System entry for Right Fork Little Kanawha River</ref> which flows along the boundaries of Upshur, Lewis and Webster Counties.<ref name=DeLorme/>; and the West Fork Little Kanawha River,<ref>Geographic Names Information System entry for West Fork Little Kanawha River</ref> which rises in southern Calhoun County and flows northwestwardly along the boundary of Roane County to the Wirt County community of Creston.<ref name=DeLorme/> Additionally, a minor tributary near Grantsville is known as the Bull River; despite being named as a "river," it is no larger than dozens of other small streams that flow into the Little Kanawha.<ref name=DeLorme/>